Firestone 550 2012

Firestone 550 2012

Racing data
7th of 15 races of the IndyCar Series 2012
Surname:	Firestone 550
Date:	June 9, 2012
Place:	Fort Worth , Texas , United States
Course:	Texas Motor Speedway
Length:	550.396 km in 228 laps of 2.414 km
Pole position
Driver:	Alex Tagliani	Bryan Herta Autosport w / Curb-Agajanian
Time:	0: 48.5695 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske
Time:	0: 24.5170 min (lap 141)
Podium
First:	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing
Second:	Graham Rahal	Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing
Third:	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske

The 2012 Firestone 550 took place on June 9th at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth , Texas , United States and was the seventh race of the 2012 IndyCar Series season .

Reports

background

After the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix , Will Power led the drivers' standings by 26 points over Scott Dixon and 55 points over Hélio Castroneves . Among the engine manufacturers, Chevrolet led with 6 points ahead of Honda and with 24 points ahead of Lotus .

For the first time after Dan Wheldon's fatal accident at the 2011 season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway , the IndyCar Series returned to an intermediate oval . The curve superelevation on the Texas Motor Speedway was 24 ° higher than on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway with 20 °. In addition, as in Las Vegas, safety fences with internal posts were attached to the track. Such fences were partly responsible for Wheldon's fatal injuries. This caused criticism in the run-up to the race. For safety reasons, the downforce of the Dallara DW12 was reduced for this race. According to Ryan Briscoe, the aim was to ensure that a lap can no longer be driven at full speed without any problems and pack racing is reduced.

Katherine Legge returned to her cockpit at Dragon Racing for this race as planned , replacing Sébastien Bourdais . Legge and Bourdais shared the cockpit with Legge playing the oval courses and Bourdais the other races.

With Castroneves (twice), Tony Kanaan , Dixon, Briscoe, Dario Franchitti and Power (once each), six former winners competed in this race. Castroneves was also a one-time winner of the Chevy 500 , an IndyCar race that also took place at Texas Motor Speedway.

training

Training for the Firestone 550 was postponed by 75 minutes because it had rained before and the road was not yet dry. The training lasted 75 minutes. Franchitti set the fastest time ahead of his teammates Dixon and Josef Newgarden . There were three breaks in the training session. Twice for track inspections, once after a technical defect in Mike Conway's vehicle .

Qualifying

The starting grid for the Firestone 550 was determined by qualifying with an individual time trial mode. Each pilot drove two flying laps in a row and the total time was decisive for the result.

Alex Tagliani achieved pole position. It was his first pole position since last year's IndyCar race on this track. Places two to four went to the Ganassi pilots Franchitti, Graham Rahal and Dixon. Power was the best driver with a Chevrolet engine in fifth, the first four positions all went to vehicles with a Honda engine.

Simona de Silvestro was the only Lotus driver to finish 23rd on the grid, beating JR Hildebrand , who made a mistake in his qualifying attempt. Race director Beaux Barfield announced before the weekend with regard to Lotus that any driver who cannot drive within the 105 percent rule in the race will be taken out of the race with the black flag.

Newgarden failed to score due to engine problems.

Following qualifying, Conway, Newgarden and de Silvestro were moved ten positions back due to premature engine changes.

Final training

In the final training session, which took place immediately after qualifying at this event, Dixon set the fastest lap time ahead of Conway and Tagliani. Takuma Satō , who was fourth, suffered engine damage at the end of the training session, which led to the session being broken off. Satō was therefore also moved back ten starting positions.

run

Before the start of the race, a previously removed Gurney Flap was added back to the vehicles to slightly increase downforce.

When the drivers started the warm-up lap, de Silvestro and Rubens Barrichello were n't there. De Silvestro's car had a problem with the fuel pump and Barrichello's car would not start.

Tagliani defended the lead at the start and kept it for the first twenty laps. Then Dixon took the lead and held it for almost 100 laps in a row. For Dixon's teammate Franchitti, however, things didn't go so well because he had handling problems. First he made an unscheduled stop under green on the 20th lap. 20 laps later, he pitted again to have the stabilizer at the rear changed. Due to the stops, he fell back several laps. For his teammate Charlie Kimball , however, the race was over on lap 30, as he hit the wall and triggered the first yellow phase.

During the following pit stops, Simon Pagenaud and Justin Wilson collided in the pit lane . Both pilots drove on. Pagenaud received a drive-through penalty and fell back one lap. In the 64th lap the next yellow phase was triggered: Satō lost control of his vehicle on the back straight and hit the inside. It was Satōs sixth failure in the seventh race of the season. In the yellow phase that followed, Ryan Hunter-Reay gave up with technical problems. A few laps later, Oriol Servià also ended the race with a technical problem in the pits.

The next yellow phase was triggered by EJ Viso , who rolled out on the track with technical problems. During the subsequent pit stops, Newgarden and Castroneves collided in the pit. Newgarden received a drive through penalty for this offense. Both pilots drove on.

Dixon, who was meanwhile in the lead over half the total distance, was overtaken by Power on lap 171. Dixon struggled with the fact that the vehicle's balance changed significantly from fresh to worn tires during the stint. Finally, on lap 174, Dixon had an accident. In second place, he came to the apron before lapping James Jakes and lost control of his vehicle. He hit the wall and was eliminated.

At the subsequent restart, Power was noticed by being unsporty. While his teammate Briscoe overtook him on the outside, Kanaan tried to overtake Power on the inside. However, Power pulled to the left and there was a collision between him and Kanaan. Both retained control of their vehicle, but Kanaan had to pit with a damaged front wing and fell out of the lead lap. Shortly afterwards, Power was given a drive-through penalty by the race management for blocking. As a result, he also dropped out of the lead and came back on the track in eighth place. Commenting on the incident after the race, Power said: “ I had Briscoe next to me and Kanaan surprised me. I'm sorry because I ruined his day because he had to switch wings on the box. But I ruined my own day with the punishment. "

In the meantime Rahal took over the lead from Briscoe. Rahal maintained the lead and had a secure lead at the front. In the third to last lap, Rahal came into contact with the wall. He retained control of his car, but Wilson overtook the back straight with two laps to go and eventually won the race. It was Wilson's first win of the season and his first ever win on an oval course . According to Wilson, his car was particularly strong on the long runs. Wilson started the race from 17th on the grid. Rahal finished in second place ahead of Briscoe.

James Hinchcliffe , who changed his strategy during the race due to weak tires, was fourth ahead of Hildebrand, who started from 23rd and worked his way up in the race. Pagenaud, who was now one lap behind, crossed the finish line in sixth and last pilot in the lead lap. The top 10 completed Castroneves, Power, Tagliani and Jakes.

After the race, penalties were imposed on Wilson and Ed Carpenter for not complying with the regulations. Wilson had unapproved aerodynamic components on the sidepods, Carpenter had an additional Gurney flap that did not comply with the rules. Wilson's Dale Coyne Racing team was deducted five owner points and fined US $ 7,500 . Ed Carpenter Racing had an owner point deducted and fined $ 5,000. The classification of the race remained unchanged and these penalties also had no effect on the drivers' standings.

Power kept the lead in the championship and increased the lead over Dixon a little. Hinchcliffe took third place from Castroneves. The positions of the engine manufacturers remained unchanged.

The drivers were very happy with the race. Power said after the race: “ That was the best racing I've ever seen in an oval. You had to lift the lift and really drive a car. That was fun. “The dangerous pack racing was prevented by the modifications made to the vehicle. There were some exciting duels for that. After the race, the drivers were in favor of continuing to hold IndyCar races on the track. The contract between the track and IndyCar ended after this race, but was extended.

Registration list

All teams and drivers used the chassis Dallara DW12 with an aero kit from Dallara and tires from Firestone .

team	No.	driver	engine
Team Penske	02	Ryan Briscoe	Chevrolet
	03	Helio Castroneves
	12	Will power
Panther Racing	04th	JR Hildebrand	Chevrolet
KV Racing Technology	05	EJ Viso	Chevrolet
	08th	Rubens Barrichello
Dragon Racing	06th	Katherine Legge	Chevrolet
Target Chip Ganassi Racing	09	Scott Dixon	Honda
	10	Dario Franchitti
KV Racing Technology w / SH	11	Tony Kanaan	Chevrolet
AJ Foyt Enterprises	14th	Mike Conway	Honda
Rahal Letterman Lanigan	15th	Takuma Satō	Honda
Dale Coyne Racing	18th	Justin Wilson	Honda
	19th	James Jakes
Ed Carpenter Racing	20th	Ed Carpenter	Chevrolet
Panther / Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	22nd	Oriol Servià	Chevrolet
Andretti Autosport	26th	Marco Andretti	Chevrolet
	27	James Hinchcliffe
	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay
Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing	38	Graham Rahal	Honda
Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	67	Josef Newgarden	Honda
Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports	77	Simon Pagenaud	Honda
Lotus-HVM Racing	78	Simona de Silvestro	lotus
Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing	83	Charlie Kimball	Honda
Bryan Herta Autosport w / Curb-Agajanian	98	Alex Tagliani	Honda

Source:

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	team	vehicle	time	Ø speed in mph	begin
01	Alex Tagliani	Bryan Herta Autosport w / Curb-Agajanian	Dallara - Honda	0: 48.5695	215.691	01
02	Dario Franchitti	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara - Honda	0: 48.5797	215.646	02
03	Graham Rahal	Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara - Honda	0: 48.6003	215.554	03
04th	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara - Honda	0: 48.6507	215.331	04th
05	Will power	Team Penske	Dallara - Chevrolet	0: 48.6992	215.116	05
06th	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	Dallara - Chevrolet	0: 48.7438	214.920	06th
07th	Tony Kanaan	KV Racing Technology w / SH	Dallara - Chevrolet	0: 48.7934	214.701	07th
08th	Mike Conway	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Dallara - Honda	0: 48.8487	214.458	18th
09	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Dallara - Chevrolet	0: 48.8564	214.424	08th
10	Takuma Satō	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Dallara - Honda	0: 48.9085	214.196	20th
11	Simon Pagenaud	Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports	Dallara - Honda	0: 48.9345	214.082	09
12	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske	Dallara - Chevrolet	0: 48.9396	214.060	10
13	Oriol Servià	Panther / Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dallara - Chevrolet	0: 48.9632	213,957	11
14th	Rubens Barrichello	KV Racing Technology	Dallara - Chevrolet	0: 48.9650	213,949	12
15th	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Dallara - Chevrolet	0: 48.9699	213,927	13
16	EJ Viso	KV Racing Technology	Dallara - Chevrolet	0: 49.0807	213,444	14th
17th	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	Dallara - Chevrolet	0: 49.0904	213,402	15th
18th	Charlie Kimball	Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara - Honda	0: 49.2217	212.833	16
19th	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara - Honda	0: 49.3834	212.136	17th
20th	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	Dallara - Chevrolet	0: 49.4984	211.643	19th
21st	James Jakes	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara - Honda	0: 49.5917	211.245	21st
22nd	Katherine Legge	Dragon Racing	Dallara - Chevrolet	0: 49.7570	210.543	22nd
23	Simona de Silvestro	Lotus-HVM Racing	Dallara - lotus	0: 51.3364	204.066	24
24	JR Hildebrand	Panther Racing	Dallara - Chevrolet	0: 51.7089	202.596	23
25th	Josef Newgarden	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	Dallara - Honda	no time	-	25th

Remarks

1. ↑ Mike Conway was moved 10 positions back due to an early engine change.
2. ↑ Takuma Satō was moved 10 positions back due to an early engine change.
3. ↑ Simona de Silvestro was moved 10 positions back due to an early engine change.
4. ↑ Josef Newgarden was moved 10 positions back due to an early engine change.

Swell:

run

Item	driver	team	vehicle	Round	time	begin	Leadership laps
01	Justin Wilson	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara - Honda	228	1: 59: 02.0131	17th	011
02	Graham Rahal	Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara - Honda	228	+ 3.9202	03	027
03	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske	Dallara - Chevrolet	228	+ 5.8619	10	005
04th	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	Dallara - Chevrolet	228	+ 10.4511	06th	008th
05	JR Hildebrand	Panther Racing	Dallara - Chevrolet	228	+ 18.7749	23	000
06th	Simon Pagenaud	Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports	Dallara - Honda	228	+ 21.3883	09	000
07th	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	Dallara - Chevrolet	227	+ 1 lap	15th	000
08th	Will power	Team Penske	Dallara - Chevrolet	227	+ 1 lap	05	024
09	Alex Tagliani	Bryan Herta Autosport w / Curb-Agajanian	Dallara - Honda	227	+ 1 lap	01	020th
10	James Jakes	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara - Honda	227	+ 1 lap	21st	000
11	Tony Kanaan	KV Racing Technology w / SH	Dallara - Chevrolet	227	+ 1 lap	07th	000
12	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	Dallara - Chevrolet	227	+ 1 lap	19th	000
13	Josef Newgarden	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	Dallara - Honda	226	+ 2 rounds	25th	000
14th	Dario Franchitti	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara - Honda	225	+ 3 rounds	02	000
15th	Katherine Legge	Dragon Racing	Dallara - Chevrolet	224	+ 4 rounds	22nd	000
16	Mike Conway	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Dallara - Honda	224	+ 4 rounds	18th	000
17th	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Dallara - Chevrolet	222	+ 6 rounds	08th	000
18th	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara - Honda	173	DNF	04th	133
19th	EJ Viso	KV Racing Technology	Dallara - Chevrolet	129	DNF	14th	000
20th	Oriol Servià	Panther / Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Dallara - Chevrolet	089	DNF	11	000
21st	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Dallara - Chevrolet	066	DNF	13	000
22nd	Takuma Satō	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Dallara - Honda	063	DNF	20th	000
23	Charlie Kimball	Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara - Honda	029	DNF	16	000
24	Rubens Barrichello	KV Racing Technology	Dallara - Chevrolet	000	DNS	12	000
25th	Simona de Silvestro	Lotus-HVM Racing	Dallara - lotus	000	DNS	24	000

Swell:

Guide sections

section	Round	driver
01	1-20	Alex Tagliani
02	21-116	Scott Dixon
03	117-125	Justin Wilson
04th	126-133	Scott Dixon
05	134-141	James Hinchcliffe
06th	142-170	Scott Dixon
07th	171-194	Will power
08th	195-199	Ryan Briscoe
09	200-226	Graham Rahal
10	227-228	Justin Wilson

Swell:

Yellow phases

No.	Duration	Round	Reason for yellow phase
1	31-39	09	Contact: Charlie Kimball (# 83) in turn 4
2	65-70	06th	Contact: Takuma Satō (# 15) in turn 3
3	131-137	07th	Standstill: EJ Viso (# 5) in turn 1
4th	174-183	10	Contact: Scott Dixon (# 9) on turn 4

Swell:

Score after the race

Driver ranking

The allocation of points is explained here .

Item driver Points 01.  Will power 256 02.  Scott Dixon 220 03.  James Hinchcliffe 208 04th  Helio Castroneves 203 05.  Simon Pagenaud 199 06th  Dario Franchitti 192 07th  Ryan Hunter-Reay 181 08th.  Ryan Briscoe 177 09.  Tony Kanaan 160 10.  Justin Wilson 156 11.  Graham Rahal 149

Item driver Points 12.  JR Hildebrand 149 13.  Oriol Servià 141 14th  Charlie Kimball 132 15th  Takuma Satō 124 16.  Rubens Barrichello 118 17th  EJ Viso 118 18th  Marco Andretti 118 19th  Mike Conway 111 20th  James Jakes 109 21st  Josef Newgarden 104 22nd  Ed Carpenter 103

Item driver Points 23.  Alex Tagliani 102 24.  Sébastien Bourdais 86 25th  Simona de Silvestro 83 26th  Katherine Legge 76 27.  Ana Beatriz 28 28.  Townsend Bell 26th 29  Michel Jourdain Jr. 16 30th  Sebastian Saavedra 14th 31.  Bryan Clauson 13 32.  Wade Cunningham 13 33.  Jean Alesi 13

Manufacturer rating

Item	Manufacturer	Points
01.	Chevrolet	54
02.	Honda	51
03.	lotus	28

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pete Fink: "Bad Weather in Texas". Motorsport-Total.com, June 8, 2012, accessed June 8, 2012 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Mario Fritzsche: "Ganassi double tour at the start of the Texas season". Motorsport-Total.com, June 8, 2012, accessed June 9, 2012 . 
3. ^ ^{A b c} Mario Fritzsche: "Texas Pole: Tagliani beats the Ganassi troop". Motorsport-Total.com, June 9, 2012, accessed June 9, 2012 . 
4. ^ "Results of Session - Practice 1". (PDF; 132 kB) indycar.com, June 8, 2012, accessed June 9, 2012 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Pete Fink: "Simona de Silvestro does not give up". Motorsport-Total.com, June 9, 2012, accessed June 9, 2012 . 
6. ↑ Pete Fink: "Texas: Lotus threatens to be expelled again". Motorsport-Total.com, June 6, 2012, accessed June 9, 2012 . 
7. ↑ Pete Fink: "Texas: Punishment For Conway". Motorsport-Total.com, June 9, 2012, accessed June 9, 2012 . 
8. ↑ Mario Fritzsche: "Final training: Dixon in front - engine failure in Sato". Motorsport-Total.com, June 9, 2012, accessed June 9, 2012 . 
9. ^ "Results of Session - Practice Final". (PDF; 146 kB) indycar.com, June 8, 2012, accessed June 9, 2012 . 
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Mario Fritzsche: "Texas: Wilson the star in the 'Lone Star State'". Motorsport-Total.com, June 10, 2012, accessed June 12, 2012 . 
11. ↑ Mario Fritzsche: "Great disappointment at Barrichello & de Silvestro". Motorsport-Total.com, June 10, 2012, accessed June 12, 2012 . 
12. ↑ Fabian Schneider: "IndyCar - Justin Wilson brings first oval victory". Decision shortly before the goal. Motorsport-Magazin.com, June 10, 2012, accessed June 12, 2012 . 
13. ↑ Pete Fink: "Penalties for Wilson and Carpenter". Motorsport-Total.com, June 12, 2012, accessed June 12, 2012 . 
14. ↑ "Entry List - Firestone 550". indycar.com, June 5, 2012, accessed June 8, 2012 . 
15. ^ "IZOD IndyCar Series - Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway - QUALIFYING RESULTS". (PDF; 88 kB) indycar.com, June 8, 2012, accessed on June 9, 2012 (English). 
16. ^ "Official Starting Line Up". (PDF; 130 kB) indycar.com, June 8, 2012, accessed on June 9, 2012 (English). 
17. ↑ ^{a b c} “OFFICIAL BOX SCORE - Firestone 550”. (PDF; 36 kB) indycar.com, June 9, 2012, accessed June 10, 2012 .